Friends, Moments, Countryside: Selected Columns from Canadian Living, 1993-98

by Peter Gzowski

Tender, personal, deeply felt, and beautifully crafter, Peter Gzowski’s columns in Canadian Living are models of the essayist’s art.

In Friends, Moments, Countryside, Gzowski has gathered sixty of his favourite columns about the undercelebrated people, the fleeting moments, and the special places that have most affected him. And especially to introduce this collection, he’s penned a lengthy and thoughtful essay on the changes in Canada he’s observed from his various vantage points.

This is Peter Gzowski at his best: intimate, reflective, and very, very Canadian.

Genres: Canada, Nonfiction

288 pages, Hardcover

First published September 12, 1998

Reviews

[Paula Dembeck · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a collection of sixty-one columns culled from the huge number Peter Gzowski penned for Canadian Living Magazine and published at various times between 1993 and 1998. There is one new piece, an essay he includes in the form of an introduction to the book, titled “As Canadian As Possible”. In this piece he speaks about the things he believes are uniquely Canadian and makes a plea to have them left that way. He admits we all enjoy Walt Disney, Jerry Seinfeld and American magazines like Sports Illustrated, but we also like our Royal Canadian Mounted Police, David Suzuki’ hosting “The Nature of Things” and “Hockey Night in Canada”. He decries the invasion of Americana in the Canadian landscape, insisting we don’t need Mickey Mouse at the Calgary Stampede or Winnie the Pooh on Canadian postage stamps, voicing the opinion that the Canadians he knows, like him, want to stay Canadian. It’s not that we don’t like Americans, we do, but we don’t want to be them. We want to stay distinctly Canadian.

Many of these essays are short, only a few pages long, but reflect the media for which they were intended. Writing a column for a monthly magazine means writing for a very different format than penning a piece for a radio program or a book.

You can see some of Gzwoski’s favourite subjects in the choices he decided to include: his perennial favourite rural communities that stretch from one end of the country to the other, reminisces about childhood friends and talks he had with well-known Canadians like Justin Trudeau and Wayne Gretzky. Always known as someone who loved to cook as well as eat, Gzowski includes some recipes as well.

Most of the selections focus on a number of things Gzowski believes are simply Canadian, about everyday people living in cities, towns and country roads in this huge Canadian landscape.

Known so well for his many years on Canadian radio in one or another iteration of his CBC program Morningside, Gzowski is his usual breezy, conversational self, but nothing matches his distinctive husky voice. Like his other books, there is much lost in the transition from the spoken to the written word. Still, he always gives readers something to enjoy and think about. He is a keen observer of people and life in general and is a skilled and intelligent writer. His simple stories often hold important truths.

As this is a compilation, none of this material is original, but it does put these pieces together in one place between the covers of a book, for those who like to pick up something like this now and again for a comfortable read.

[Lester · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such a 'comfortable read'. Funny and lovely.
I had so many markers on the pages that I wanted to go back to..there was no point in going back. One day..just re-read the book again!
Living in a small cabin with children..no power or water..I had a ghetto blaster and played CBC every day. Peter Gzowski was one of my best friends..an adult voice..5 mornings a week!! Shelagh Rogers and Vicki Gabereau in the afternoons later on. When CBC plays their 'many' replays of shows with PG..I am drawn to the radio immediately. My now grown children all know his voice so well. Miss that voice!!
Thankx for the stories.
Oh yes..one of the 'Canadian jokes' from this book..

What is an ig?
A northern house without a bathroom!!

Hahahahah..might have to live up here to get that one!

[Evelyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this many years ago and it has sat on my shelf patiently awaiting it's turn to be read. What a gem!
I love the voice of these essays, the humour and wit, and the references that had me reminiscing along with the writer. Peter Gzowski writes about people, everybody from celebrities to politicians to his hairdresser. He writes about places, coast to coast to coast in Canada. And he writes about events, big, small, public and home life.
His love of Canada, it's culture, people and places is infectious. This passage from an essay about picking the best Canadian song sums it up. "But the other conclusion I came to was that it didn't matter. They were all great songs. They mattered to people. They were part of their lives. At a time when we're doing so much hand-wringing about what our culture is or whether we have one at all, maybe we should just spend some time singing them to ourselves and to the world."

2nd read
This time through I was struck my how many references to Saskatchewan, my home province, are in these essays.
What an interesting life this man had!

[Deb Mohr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such an easy going, enjoyable read…much like the man himself, I wager. #1350

[Sheryl Sato]

I used to read these columns when subscribed to Canadian Living, but have to say I thoroughly enjoyed this compilation, easy to read and full of pop culture I can remember from the 1990s.

Beautiful writing.